You need to know how to capture the challenges

Resume writing is all about learning to capture the challenges. Most people don’t think in these terms. They think of resumes in terms of duties. What employers are looking for is what challenges you faced that match the kinds of challenges they have with their organization. They are looking for problem solvers, people who have met the challenge and overcome.

What challenges did you conquer in your job?

Identifying first the challenge and then the actions you took is the first part of the equation. After you do that, you need to uncover the result and quantify the success. This is what creates a superior resume, which is the first step in a solid career marketing plan.

What is the challenge? What is the problem?

One client faced a program with a lack of compliance across numerous organizations. He identified the specific needs for the companies and this is the bullet that describes how he transitioned this challenge into a success story:

• Spearheaded launch and creation of a compliance policy to drive operations for 19 separate and independent oil and gas service companies, resulting in a robust compliance policy tailored to each entity with buy-in from each company.

Every business has problems. They may not call them problems but they need to have solutions developed to grow revenue, build market share, manage resources, and integrate technology. The job of the job seeker is to start looking at their career from a challenge-based perspective and find the solutions they developed to conquer and then capture the challenges.

It happens at high levels, but it also happens in everyday work to entry-level people. Most people take what they do for granted and figure that they don’t matter to the company. The people who successfully move on in their careers are the people who continually take a challenging approach to work and find ways to build on beginning challenges by taking on bigger ones. Capture the challenges!